Can Arsenal recover from the FA Cup defeat to Blackburn and stop high-flying Bayern Munich in their tracks? Arsene Wenger will certainly hope so, but there are not too many things going into the Gunners’ favour at the moment.

The high-profile encounter clearly comes at bad time for the North London side, with unexpected defeat to Blackburn and numerous selection problems making their life very difficult at the moment.

Arsenal were in a pretty good form ahead of the FA Cup clash at the weekend, having recorded back to back victories over Stoke and Sunderland, keeping two clean sheets in a row for only the third time this season.

With a number of starters rested for the Blackburn match, the hosts may just be able to go into this game in good spirits, although it is perfectly clear they will have to play a perfect game in order to create an advantage before the return leg.

This may be a long shot, but there will be quite a few Arsenal fans taking odds of 4.00 (3/1) offered at Betfair on the Gunners to qualify.

Given that Kieran Gibbs is injured and Nacho Monreal is cup-tied, captain Thomas Vermaelen looks set to start at left-back, with Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny forming the centre-back pairing.

Santi Cazorla, Jack Wilshire, Bacary Sagna, Lukas Podolski and Theo Walcott are all set to return after they were rested at the weekend.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Szczesny – Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Vermaelen – Arteta, Wilshire – Walcott, Cazorla, Podolski – Giroud.

Many people believed Bayern would crumble after failing to win the Champions League title on home soil, but it appears the unfortunate defeat to Chelsea gave Jupp Heynckes’ team an extra motive to make things right this season.

Boosted by the heavy summer spending, the Bavarians have been absolutely brilliant so far, with incredible strength in depth proving to be a major asset this season.

When the likes of Robben Gomez, Boateng and Gustavo are struggling to get some playing time, you know that your starting line-up is as good as they get.

Having created a 15-point advantage at the Bundesliga summit, Bayern Munich can fully focus on their Champions League campaign, so no wonder they are 2.10 (11/10) favourites with Coral to win at the Emirates.

In spite of bagging 15 goals in 19 league games, Mario Mandukic has yet to score his first Champions League goal for Bayern, and he is 2.50 (3/2) with Ladbrokes to break the duck in North London.

Javi Martinez has recovered from a toe injury in the nick of time, but Jerome Boateng, Claudio Pizarro and Holger Badstuber are all unavailable.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Neuer – Lahm, Van Buyten, Dante, Alaba – Martinez, Schweinsteiger – Muller, Kroos, Ribery – Mandzukic.

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